Machine rooms and enclosures for telecommunications and other computing equipment have specialized ventilation needs due to the heat generated as a byproduct of operation. Such enclosures are typically only as large as necessary to house the corresponding equipment, and therefore prone to heat buildup if not adequately cooled or ventilated. Conventional approaches outfit these enclosures with air conditioning systems to offset the heat gain, however are often only equipped to generate an alarm in the event of equipment malfunction. Failure of the native AC system presents problems of overheated equipment and downtime until maintenance personnel can be notified and transported to the failed system location.
Ventilation systems for telecommunications enclosures and machine rooms may include an ambient air exchange system to supplement the native cooling and as a failover in the case of failure. Such systems may be that as disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/946,055, filed Nov. 19, 2015, entitled “VENTILATION CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHOD,” incorporated herein by reference. Ambient air exchange systems circulate outside air for cooling equipment when it is beneficial to do so. Such a system reduces runtime and power cycles in the native HVAC system, and also provide failover capability to ventilate if the native AC fails. Such a system incorporates one or more exterior vents to outside atmospheric air for selective exchange and exhausting of air inside the enclosure.